Patterns: A Woman’s Story of Recognising Coercive Control
Savannah Mouat, Leigh Coombes, Mandy Morgan and Geneva Connor
More than half of adult women experience some form of gendered abuse in their home (Fanslow & Robinson, 2011).
Recognising patterns of abuse embedded in and through white heteronormative coupledom can be difficult.
Speaking of felt unease and danger can be fraught particularly in the absence of explicit physical abuse, stereotypically understood as domestic violence.
As researchers, we have heard many stories of women’s endurance of abuse by someone they love. Women we speak with have often expressed the desire for their stories to be shared so that other women may see themselves in such stories, recognise danger in their experience of abuse, and become safer in their lives.
In this paper, we share one woman’s story of coercive control in her relationship in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. We provide an orientation and coda for her story, gifted to us in the hope that others may recognise more quickly the entrapment of coercive control.
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